Geoffrey Stone, co-author of White House Report on the NSA, speaks at a RamsayTalk in Toronto on Wednesday, December 19.

Stone is Dean Emeritus of University of Chicago Law School and a former colleague of President Obama.

TORONTO, Nov. 3, 2014 /CNW/ - When 29-year-old NSA contractor Edward Snowden blew his employer's cover last year on their illegal surveillance of millions of American citizens, his revelations sparked outrage world-wide. They also confirmed what many of us feared: that America's intelligence organizations can penetrate the most intimate secrets of just about everyone.

U.S. President Obama was stung by Snowden's revelations and convened a panel of five eminent Americans to examine the NSA's activities. Their report was completed this spring and is now available in book form as The NSA Report: Liberty and Security in a Changing World: The President's Review Group on Intelligence and Communications Technologies, by Richard A. Clarke, Michael J. Morell, Geoffrey R. Stone, Cass R. Sunstein & Peter Swire -- http://press.princeton.edu/titles/10296.html

The Report is complex and sophisticated in its analysis and recommendations. But its ultimate conclusion is simple and clear: "Americans must never make the mistake of wholly 'trusting' our public officials."

Geoffrey R. Stone is a pre-eminent legal scholar and the Edward H. Levi Distinguished Service Professor at the University of Chicago. He is also a frequent contributor to the New York Times, the Washington Post and the Wall Street Journal on civil liberties, government power and constitutional safeguards.Biography -- http://www.law.uchicago.edu/faculty/stone-g

Geoffrey Stone will speak at the Ramsay Luncheon on Wednesday, November 19thfrom 12 noon to 2:00 p.m. at The Four Seasons Hotel, 60 Yorkville Avenue, Toronto. The luncheon is sponsored by the law firm, Aird & Berlis LLP.